Sermon | Romans 10:19–21 | 2026 June 14

Title: Sermon | Romans 10:19–21 | 2026 June 14

Scripture: Romans 10:19–21 (ESV, reference only)

Date: 2026 June 14

Speaker: Rev. John Chen

Translated & edited by: Joseph Wang (Yufan)

Scripture: Romans 10:19–21.

Sermon Title: A Disobedient and Contrary People (2026 June 14)

Theme Statement: Because of God’s mercy and grace, we must recognize our true position before God and therefore follow the gospel.

Question Statement: How do we become, from a disobedient and contrary people, children of God who obey Him?

Transition Statement: Through the following several ways.

Keyword: How.

Introduction: Today we continue to examine the book of Romans.

Know the ignorance of the Israelites.

In the book of Romans, Paul is accusing the Israelites of two things: one is that they wanted to be justified by works; the other is that they did not accept the gospel being preached to the Gentiles. Both of these things came from the pride of the Israelites. Because they had the law of God, they thought that by keeping these ordinances they could obtain God’s blessing. But this was actually impossible, because no one can keep the law perfectly. The reason the law was given was certainly to indicate the standard of life for the Israelites, but its first function was to condemn the Israelites of sin.

The Israelites did not understand this truth. Instead, they thought they could be saved by keeping the law. This means that they did not recognize the threefold use of the law: 1. to know the standard for the life of all people and to carry it out accordingly; 2. to cause us to recognize that we are sinners who need to rely on the redemption of Christ; 3. to forbid regenerate Christians from sinning and to restrain their corruption. They only took two of these uses, 1 and 3, and ignored that the turning point lies in the redemption of the Lord Jesus, which is 2. This also shows that the gospel is justification by faith alone, through Christ alone.

The Israelites were also bitterly troubled that the gospel was preached to the Gentiles. They believed that they alone were God’s chosen people, and that all Gentiles were not qualified to enter into God’s covenant. They forgot that the reason their ancestor Abraham could enter into covenant with God was also entirely God’s grace. Since Abraham was justified by faith, then it is not surprising that the Gentiles are also justified by faith. But the Israelites resisted this point and insisted on opposing the apostle Paul.

However, Paul says that these two things were actually already prophesied in Scripture. There is both the testimony of Moses and the testimony of the prophet Isaiah. It is only that the Israelites themselves were unwilling to listen and obey.

In the testimony of Moses, the reason God would choose the Gentiles was that the Israelites worshiped false gods. Therefore, God would choose the Gentiles. It seems as though God chose the Gentiles in order to take revenge on the Israelites. Of course, when we interpret Scripture, we must pay attention to this: this is an anthropomorphism used by God. In other words, God’s choosing of the Gentiles had long been God’s will. Nevertheless, one of the effects of God’s choosing of the Gentiles would indeed be to provoke the Israelites. On the surface, it was to arouse anger; in reality, it was to stir them up, so that they would awaken to their own error, confess their sins and repent, trust in Christ, and catch up.

In the testimony of the prophet Isaiah, God uses the Gentiles’ obedience to the gospel to reveal the Israelites’ rebellion against God’s grace. God calls the Gentiles, and the Gentiles obey the gospel. But toward God’s will, the Israelites provoke God’s anger to His face.

The reason the Israelites did not receive these two testimonies was because of their stubbornness and rebellion. They were unwilling to listen to God’s voice and unwilling to humble themselves. They wanted to establish their own righteousness.

Understand God’s will for us.

Then, what exactly is God’s will? First, God’s will is to reveal that all election comes from God’s grace, and not from man’s choice or man’s merit.

The truth of justification by faith tells both the Israelites and the Gentiles that everything is grace, and it does not depend on man’s choice. God’s choosing of the Gentiles is certainly grace. Likewise, His choosing of the Israelites and His choosing of Abraham are also grace. God chooses the Gentiles to belong under His own name, causing the Israelites to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham.

Second, just as God Himself declared, God also uses the choosing of the Gentiles to provoke the Israelites, so that they may be stirred up to strive with zeal and may more deeply know that the truth of Scripture is justification by faith, and not justification by works.

When the Israelites were proud and self-righteous, thinking that because they were descendants of Abraham they could obtain God’s blessing, God, through the matter of choosing the Gentiles, warned them that they must repent and trust in Christ, rather than trusting in their own bloodline. The Israelites who trusted in their own bloodline treated grace as something taken for granted, and then wanted to be justified through their own works.

But God wanted to warn them through the salvation of the Gentiles. Matthew 3:7–12. This fruit of repentance refers to the fruit of repentance that comes from trusting in Christ. It is the fruit of humbling oneself and lowering oneself.

God wanted the Israelites to understand that the reason they were chosen was not because of their righteousness, but because of God’s mercy. Now, this mercy was also going to come upon the Gentiles.

But the Israelites did not understand God’s meaning. After receiving the law, they wanted to be justified by their own works. They completely departed from God’s revelation and departed from the teaching of the whole Bible. Therefore, God called them a disobedient and contrary people.

Even so, God still did not cast them away, but held out His hands to call them all day long. This reveals God’s love. Had the Israelites not heard these truths? They had already heard them long ago. They simply chose not to believe.

Follow the crucified Christ.

And Christ became for us the example of obedience. He obeyed God’s command that seemed unreasonable, that is, to have Himself die on the cross. But He did not rebel, talk back, or resist. Instead, He actively hung Himself on the tree.

The reason was that He knew God’s will is entirely good, and He also had perfect love for God the Father. Therefore, He actively obeyed. He was equal with God, yet He humbled Himself and obeyed. Philippians 2:6–8. He set His heart to obey, to the point of death, even death on a cross. He loved God the Father and trusted God the Father, and therefore He obeyed all the commands of God the Father.

So, as we come to the end of Romans chapter 10, we see that the greatest characteristic of the Israelites is rebellion and disobedience. In these two matters, justification by faith and the acceptance of the Gentiles, the Israelites firmly resisted. They rejected the Messiah, Jesus Christ. They resisted the doctrine of justification by faith. They crucified Jesus Christ on the cross. They acted according to their own thoughts. The Israelites lived entirely in self-centeredness. A self-centered person is naturally a person who resists Jesus Christ.

Just as the apostle Paul himself testified concerning the Israelites in Romans 10:3–4, the Israelites did not know the righteousness of God and wanted to establish their own righteousness. This is disobedience. This is refusing to submit to the righteousness of God. However, the end of the law is Christ. This means that Christ fulfilled the law. As long as we trust in Him, we also fulfill the law, so that everyone who believes in Christ may obtain this righteousness. And no one can rely on his own ability to fulfill the law.

Then, before God’s justification by faith, we must know that the source of our salvation is only the crucified Christ. Without Christ’s shedding of blood and sacrifice, we could not possibly obtain salvation.

Then, what exactly does this salvation tell us? It tells us how unworthy we are. If we still had even the slightest ability, God would not have sent His own Son to be nailed to the cross. The Son of God being nailed to the cross tells us that none of us can obtain salvation by relying on our own ability. Therefore, every one of us is unworthy before salvation.

This sense of unworthiness makes us completely humble and completely grateful before God. For sinners like us, the only thing we deserve is to go down to hell at this very moment. Anything else, anything higher than hell, is grace. The gospel makes us completely humble, confessing that everything belongs to God and not to us, and that all we have also belongs to God and not to ourselves.

Live out the beauty of Jesus Christ.

Then, this humility before God will be transformed into humility before people. Christian humility is not merely saying with our mouths that we are not capable. Rather, deep in our bones, it is recognizing that we are sinners who are completely nothing, and that everything is God’s grace and mercy.

The hardest thing for man is to admit that he is not capable, to admit that he has nothing. Because deep in man’s bones, he wants to prove himself, to reveal how capable he is, and to reveal his own righteousness. Man always does everything possible to search for his own characteristics and strengths, in order to find a point of support on which to stand and establish his life. In reality, for a person without Christ, it is impossible to admit his own inability. Because such an admission would crush him and drive him mad. Only in Christ can a person truly admit that he has nothing.

Such a person will not fight with others, will not calculate how others treat him, will not complain about the unfairness of fate, and will not be dissatisfied with all that he has. Because he knows that everything he has is grace. This is called submitting to the righteousness of God.

An obedient person is someone who acknowledges that only God is righteous and that man has no righteousness at all. Therefore, man looks to God and entrusts himself into God’s hands, becoming a child of God who obeys Him.

Therefore, being unable to endure, unable to forgive, and unable to deny oneself, in the final analysis, are all because of the pride within man himself. Man does not want to submit to the righteousness of God. Man wants to resist God and resist Christ, who was nailed to the cross for him.

When a person thinks that everything he has is deserved, all kinds of pride, self-righteousness, stubbornness, and rebellion arise, even before God. The Israelites are our bad example. They thought they had something. They thought God had made a covenant with their ancestor Abraham. They thought they were higher than other nations. In the end, instead, they became the most stubborn and rebellious sons.

Only when a person thoroughly recognizes before God that he has nothing will he truly be humble and truly learn to forgive. When we see others surpass us and others receive greater grace from God, we must become all the more humble, giving thanks to God for the work that has happened in others, rather than being jealous. We believe that when we are truly humble before God, God’s power will once again lift us up, so that we may carry God’s own glory.

Closing Statement: May God lead us to hold tightly to the truth of justification by faith, to humble ourselves in the gospel, to imitate the obedience of Christ, to forsake our own pride, and to carefully obey God’s laws and statutes in our lives.

Questions: 1. In what ways were the Israelites ignorant?

2. What is God’s will for us?

3. How do we follow Christ?

4. How do we live out the life of Jesus Christ?